Okay, so you’re reading this because you have an old, ugly fireplace in your house and you need some help figuring out how to paint a brick fireplace.

I feel your pain!! When we moved into our old, 1973 house, it didn’t cross my mind that I would one day have to DO something about that ugly brick fireplace. I know that some people like exposed brick, and yes, in some instances, I think it can look pretty industrial and chic.

But sometimes, your fireplace just needs to be painted, and you need to know how to do it right, and on a budget.

When we moved in, this is what we were stuck with: this grossly outdated fireplace that sucked like from the room like a cave!

There was nothing attractive or “rustic” about it. The fireplace leaked air, too, so in the cooler months, we have to cover it with plastic. What an eye sore!

Hubby actually LIKED the brick, but he’s a man, and men are crazy about red brick. I don’t understand that. LOL. But I at least wanted to honor is desire to keep it looking like brick.

So one night I was scanning online at 2 a.m. (I seriously need to get more sleep…..), and I found a fireplace painting kit from (from Brick Anew). I couldn’t find any reviews on it, and honestly, didn’t know if it would work. But considering they had a money-back guarantee, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try it.

It did hurt my pockets, though. At $199, it wasn’t cheap. But when you compare the cost of having a contractor come in to knock out the bricks, or cover it up with drywall, $199 wasn’t too outrageous after all. LOL

I took a day off from work (ahem–called in sick, but don’t tell anyone!), and got set to work.

The first thing I did was clean the fireplace. I had ordered their fireplace cleaner from Brick Anew. It comes with an instructional DVD. I ended up recording the whole process myself for anyone who’s reading this that need that extra help in doing it (watch my video: How to Paint an Old Brick Fireplace Using Brick Anew).

I was stoked it actually came out well! I had ordered the kit and it sat for months because I was afraid to screw it up. LOL. But it turned out well, thankfully!

The reason why it turned out so well is because the colors are pre-selected, so it takes the guess-work out of knowing which colors to layer to get the right effect. All it is is a faux finish. You can figure out what colors you need to do the same faux finish, and you’d probably spend no more than $50 to achieve the same look as a DIY project. But not everyone is so creatively adventure, so the choice is yours. :).

If you watch my YouTube video below, I am basically using the kit, layering the paint on in a faux finish.

My family room now doesn’t feel like a dark cave anymore. YAY!!

Here’s the AFTER:

And of course, just doing a BEFORE and AFTER shot isn’t enough. I actually shot a video on how to paint a brick fireplace. Please feel free to check it out and share! (And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel).

How to Paint a Brick Fireplace – Video Tutorial

Here’s a close-up of the finished fireplace. Seriously, it such an improvement! The layering of the paint in a faux finish really created the look of brick. So hubby is happy because it still looks like brick, and I am happy because now I don’t have to live in a cave. Win, win!

I get emailed often about the details of this project, and here are some of my most frequently asked questions:

FAQ:

Nope…..Sorry, unfortunately they only sell from their own website, as far as I know. (I bought the Twilight Taupe, but there are a couple other color choices). The shipping is free, I believe, which is good.

Q. How much does it cost?

It’s a whopping $199.50, to be exact. I know…. I think it’s a bit overpriced for paint. But the beauty of it is that you don’t have to do any guesswork in trying to come up with your own color combinations to try to fake the same look. You can try if you’d like. I know that a few people have emailed me and said they did their own faux finish, and it turned out! You can also just buy the kit. Brick Anew offers a money-back guarantee, which is awesome, because if you try it and find that you don’t like it, there’s no regret

Q. How do I paint my own faux finish on my brick fireplace?

This website has great instructions on doing a faux finish to cover up dark ugly brick and to still make it look like brick. It recommends:

1. Get a paint chip color card in tan or light brown (see paint code above) and use it as your base coat. Look at my YouTube video on how to paint an old brick fireplace for an idea of the shade of beige I used.

2. Whichever color you use as your base coat, take the lighter color on the card, and take the darker color below it, and each color will get mixed with glaze. You could probably use this glaze from Home Depot.

3. Go over the base coat with the darker glaze mix.

4. Next, go over with the lighter glaze mix.

Q: How much Brick Anew paint will I need?

If your fireplace is huge like mine, you will probably need to order more than the kit offers. The website says it covers about an 8′ x 10′ fireplace. If you see my video and pics above, one kit covered just the top half. Order according to your fireplace size. Use mine as a gauge.

Q: What should I use to clean my fireplace?

A: You can use Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) to get it clean, as well. You can get it from Home Depot or Amazon. My family isn’t big fireplace users, so ours wasn’t too dirty. If you’re someone that uses your fireplace a lot, invest in a good fireplace cleaner so you’re not painting over dirty fireplace soot.

Q: Did you use a sealer on your fireplace after painting it?

A: Nope! It seems pretty secure and I haven’t had any chipping.

So here’s another look at the room. I haven’t taken many full room “after” shots because my family room is still not done! I’ve been focusing on my painted furniture projects but I’ll probably be working on it soon as part of my 30-Day Room Makeover Challenge series (you should totally join if you’ve been wanting motivation to make over a room in your house!)

BEFORE

So what do you think??

I really like it. The rest of my family room is in dire need of help, though. Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss the makeover this room will be getting soon!

So do you have an old brick fireplace that is driving you crazy? Leave a comment below and share your horror story!

Hey there, I'm Serena, a 37-year-old working mom of 3 young boys who can't get enough DIY! If you actually made it to the bottom of this post to read this, it means you're really enjoy my blog. That means SO much. If I can inspire just one person through my passion and energy for DIY, then I'm fulfilling my life's purpose. Thanks for joining me, and I hope you'll subscribe so we can keep in touch! ~Serena

Thanks, Jason! Yep, base color was applied to everything. As for Colors 1,2,3 and the glaze, I applied them only to the bricks. My mortar was a bit inset, so it was easy to only stick to the bricks. But some people’s fireplaces may have more even brick and mortar, so you’d have to be diligent to stay on just the bricks. Are you considering painting your fireplace?

Yes, I’d like to paint my fireplace but I’m hesitant. Like yours, my brick fireplace covers one entire wall but my mortar joints are black not gray. I don’t recall from your video, but did you use the Twilight Taupe color?

Jason,
Don’t be afraid to paint it! You will LOVE it! The black mortor won’t matter, because (if you use this painting kit), you would be painting the whole brick and mortor with the base coat. It covers well, but you will need more than what comes in the kit. It comes with 2 bottles of base coat, but if you recall from the video, those 2 bottles only covered half of my fireplace. I ended up going to Home Depot and got a color match of the base coat. You could do the same, too. The difference is so slight you can’t tell. And then when you do Colors 1,2,3, just do it on the brick. It will look soooo much nicer. And yes, I cuded Twilight Taupe. Good luck, and let me know if you have any other questions!

No, haven’t done my fireplace yet. It was supposed to be my big winter project, before yard work calls in the spring. Still have a few more months though, and I just want to be confident about my color choice and the amount of paint I’ll need.

Jason, I haven’t seen that report. In my own experience, they had pretty good customer service. At first, I was going to return the kit, even after I had painted part of the wall, because I just felt like, “I paid $200 for THIS??!!” The customer service woman was like, “Yeah, we’ll give you a refund if you really want it, but promise me you’ll at least TRY to finish all the colors, or at least do a test, and see if you like it.” So I took her advice and finished it, and I DID love it, so of course, I never returned it.
Let me know when you’ve done your fireplace! I would really love to see a pic Happy painting!

I think this turned out great. Do you think you could have done this with material all from a Home Depot/Lowes/Menards paint line knowing what you know now or do you think that the Brick A New has some coats in which can not be replicated. I enjoyed the depth in which things were put in order and it makes sense because some people just choose to paint their fireplace and it’s just a solid color and it does not look brick anymore; this does?

If it could be bought locally, could you possibly tell exactly what products are needed to buy and how much one may save. I agree 200 is steep but you do have a great looking wall!

Hi, Randy! Hmm…good question. I think I probably could have, maybe if I had known what I was ordering before I actually ordered it. LOL. I was up at 2 a.m. and just happened to be searching painting fireplaces, and stumbled onto Brick Anew. It was a splurge purchase, without any knowledge of what I was buying. I was a little dismayed to find that I had spend $200 on…um…PAINT in small bottles! LOL What you’re paying for is the particular COLORS they’ve pre-mixed for you. If you could figure out what colors you’d need to do a faux finish, which is what this is, then you’d be all set. Do some research on faux finishes and see what you come up with.
As for saving, you could get a can of regular brick mason paint for about $20. A WHOLE CAN, versus one of those small bottles. That’s huge savings!!
Let me look in to seeing if I can try to replicate it. I don’t want to infringe on their licensing or anything! Lord knows I don’t need a lawsuit. LOL

Thank you for the reply; I agree the color scheme should not be too hard to find for some faux diy finishes that some people have experimented. I guess besides the brick mason paint is there any other special paints. I understand Brick a new is going to be cryptic and not boldly say this is just brick mason paint from lowes with our label on it with our own color tint we made up. Thanks again for responding and I am glad you showed us hope in what our fireplaces could look like and not so “Old” . Great job!

Definitely! I think the most important thing is to start with a basecoat that’s a few shades darker, and then work in a couple lighter colors, while working in random pattern to “faux” it on As for special paints, there is one step that they call the “Glaze” step. I don’t know how “special” it is, though. I don’t know if it was really a glaze at all. I’ll take a closer look at it and see if I can determine if it’s a more watery glaze or something. But oh—I think I forgot to reply earlier that yes, it still has a “brick” look to it, which is what drew me to the product to begin with. Hubby wanted to keep it its original brick (!!!! Heck no!!!!). So I thought this was a good compromise: paint it, but make it still look like brick. I’m totally satified with it! So even if you bought it, you would NOT be dissatisfied! It really does work, and takes the guess-work out of which colors to choose to make it look the best.

Hi Serena,
Love, Love, love your brick wall!! It’s so updated and fresh looking! I have a “faux brick” wall in my kitchen that is definitely going to get a make-over. I’d love to achieve this look and was wondering how you feel about white-washing the faux brick? It would still look like brick, but with a nice whitish wash. I’d love to hear your opinion and perhaps suggestions.
Thanks bunches:)

Love the way your fireplace turned out. Looks just like mine right down to the brass doors! I am about to order the kit and I noticed that you can buy additional base coat. My question is what size of area did you paint? Do you think one more container would have been enough for you to finish? My area is 11’x13′. I work odd hours so any chance I have of hitting Home Depot is slim to none anytime soon ( I am the 2am project kind of gal) advice would be great!

Hey there, Sarah! Thanks for the compliment! My fireplace is about that same size. The kit comes with 2 bottles of base coat. It took me both bottles, and I was only able to finish the top portion of my fireplace. It also depends on how porous your fireplace is. Mine is VERY porous! If your is porous, I would count on needing 2 more bottles to coat the whole thing. If you’d like, you could probably just order 1 additional bottle, and then if you need it, order another. Not sure how much shipping would be, but it would be cheaper than buying another bottle and then finding that you don’t need it, you know? Their website says that a kit will cover 100 sq ft. Yours, from your dimensions, is about 143 sq ft. Try one extra bottle and go from there. Good luck!! You’ll love the results!

I got the same look for $20.00. Cleaned the fireplace, mixed 2 parts water with one part white, latex paint. Slowly painted one brick at a time, dabbing and rubbing in with a clean rag, as I went, I was careful not to get it in the grout. Looks fabulous!

Hi, yes, I have a photo of the result. My husband loved it! I do not know how to post it here. Tried to copy and paste it into the comment box, but it didn’t work. I am happy to try again, if anyone can tel me how I can post it here or happy to attach it in an e-mail to you! It is such an improvement! The fireplace had sickly looking, 60’s peach brick. Now it’s SO much better!

When you bought the extra paint at Home Depot, what exactly did you buy? I am trying to find what color and finish and also if you bought a gallon or quart extra. Moving to a new house and along with painting many many walls, we have this listed to do. It’d be much easier for me to hit Home Depot for extra then wiat for a shipment.

FINALLY a painted brick fireplace I can LOVE. For 13 YES THIRTEEN YEARS I have wanted to and searched for a a way to paint this cave looking brick to no avail.
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING US THIS!!!!
We will FINALLY be doing something about what we consider the only flawed area of our family room.

Hey there, Vicki! Oh man, 13 years?! Well, I’m glad you’re not going to have to live with it much longer! I just can’t believe that someone back in 1973 thought this red brick would be a good idea. LOL!

Thanks for the video. I found BrickAnew while looking for a way to remove the painted from my already painted brick. Being the skeptic that I am, I started looking at all the blogs and video I could find and there was not much. I don’t think I would have moved forward with the BrickAnew without your video. I thought it was a great concept, but I really didn’t want to waste $200 for the kit to find out it was not.

Thank you for a great video tutorial! We just closed on a farmhouse built in 1930. It has an ugly partial brick wall that needs updated. I have heard horror stories of painting brick but you make it look so effortless!! I can’t wait to start painting mine

Happy New Year! I just came across your website while researching fire place painting. I absolutely love your new updates fire place. I really don’t want to spend the $200 for the paint supplies from the vendor that you used. Is it possible that I can obtain the same look by using items for Home Depot? I’m ready to take on my first DIY project. A bit nervous, but still excited.

Thanks for any advice that you can offer; and apologies if this is a repeated question.

Thanks for posting this I thought of refacing with rock then decided I didn’t want to spend to much so I was looking for alternatives I am so excited to see how good this came out then the screen cover I didn’t think of painting it I was gonna get a new one I really love the outcome great job I was intimidated to start this but now I’m ready!

Hey Serena, Thanks for sharing such a pleasant experience of renovating fireplace. You are lucky that your hard work ( or smart work) resulted well. We went for a fireplace renovation last year and spent almost double the amount but the result is just not done. It is terrible; even though the outer appearance is acceptable but am just not sure about the quality of product used! I think it’s time when I should actually try something new and innovating. Thanks for the suggestion ( and also motivation)

Aston, no problem!! The Brick Anew is really easy to use. Again, you can make your own DIY version, but you can also buy it if you don’t want to have to figure out the paint colors and stuff! Good luck, and send me a pic when you’re done!

Thanks! I have painted my fireplace white (16 years ago) and dark gray (last year) and just have never loved it. Going to try for the middle ground and more “brick look” after your inspiring video. Like you, I found brick anew at 2 am… but I didn’t buy it until I found your info. Wish me luck. Loved your video!

Would you mind posting or emailing me a pic of the fireplace from across the room? I have exactly the same fireplace even screen but would like to see it in relation to the floors, walls etc. Thanks. Beautiful work by the way!

Hi Angelica! Sorry for the late response! I can snap a pic of it when I get home. I’m at work right now. Email me and I’ll forward it to you! You’ll have to forgive the other messy furnishings! LOL My email is THRIFTDIVING at GMAIL dot COM.

Thanks, Lisa! I remember getting it done in 1 day. I took a day off from work to get it done. I would say maybe 6 hours total? The dry time wasn’t an issue because the size of it, by the time I got to the other end, the other side was already drying!

Do you mind sending me the color code that you used for your base color, I’d really appreciate it. I can’t afford the Brick-anew system right now but at less than $50 for Mason Paint, I’m willing to give that a shot.

Thank you soooo much for sharing this!! We are remodeling our house to get it ready to put on the market. We are doing all of the work ourselves! We’ve been back and forth on this fireplace! I love natural exposed brick and we planned on keeping it as is…..until we redid our floors … now it just does not go! I have yet to touch it with paint because I’m terrified that its just not going to look good. After reading your article, I am pretty confident that I can do this!! I’m a great painter but I’ve never painted brick. I can’t wait to buy my Brick Anew kit, watch your video and get started! Very excited for the end result! Thanks so much for your advice!

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Hey, I’m Serena!

So glad to see you made it this far down the page. Nobody eeeeeeever makes it this far down the page. But because you did, you and me--we are officially best blogosphere friends now! :) Thrift Diving is a blog about real people, real homes, real projects--not the fake stuff you see on House Beautiful. This blog is for people like you who want to learn how to decorate, improve, and maintain your home on a DIY budget. I'm so glad you're here! WELCOME!!! :)